Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Teens And Social Media Use

These days’ teenagers use social media to document everything from the mundane task all the way to criminal acts. What they do not realize is that the police now track social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the hopes of gaining leads and evidence for their open cases.

In July, a riot broke out in Huntington Beach after a surfing competition. During the violence, police cars were vandalized (obscenities were scrawled on them). Police tracked down a suspected vandal after leads from the Huntington Beach Police Department Facebook page proved valuable. 18 year old Luis Enriques Rodriguez of Anaheim, CA was tracked down and arrested after he “liked” photos on the Facebook page of the damaged patrol cars and shared them with his friends. This was noticed by the fans of the Huntington Beach Facebook page, and a series of tips led them to the arrestee. Rodriguez’s Facebook profile picture shows him sitting on top of a squad car during what seems to be the same day as the riots, wearing the same outfit.

Police uploaded numerous pictures from July’s riot to Facebook in the hopes the public would help identify people in the pictures. Several suspects have turned themselves in since their photo was added to the Facebook page.

Rodriguez was not the only one to boast about his involvement in the riot. 18 year old Niko Johnson posted to Twitter that he is Huntington Beach’s most wanted. Like, Luis Enrique Rodriguez, Niko Johnson was arrested for his participation in the riots.

Teens don’t realize that social media can incriminate them and lead the police right to their front doorstep - and so often they do it to themselves!